Which card is the best in this segment?

By Koen CrijnsFriday April 12, 2013 12:58 AM

Introduction

Are you looking to buy a new graphics card? Of course you are. Then we have the perfect graphics card round-up for you today. While not many real new GPUs have been introduced recently, that doesn't mean that there aren't a lot of cutting-edge video cards on the market. Hardware.Info tested 23 graphics cards in the mid-range segment from nine different manufacturers.

Aside from the recently introduced AMD Radeon HD 7790 and Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost, very little has happened in past year in the world of video cards. That's not bound to change in the coming months, and we're not expecting any major new announcements the rest of this year, so the GPUs that came out at the start of this year are still cutting-edge.

While we already tested many cards when they came out such as the Radeon HD 7870 and the Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti, several of those are no longer available or have received both minor and major updates.

Reason enough for Hardware.Info to test a large number of current graphics cards in the mid-range segment costing between 200 and 300 euros. Nine manufacturers sent us a total of 23 graphics cards.

Around 200 euros you find cards based on the AMD Radeon HD 7870 or Nvidia GeForce GTX 660, which have about the same level of performance. That's also true for the AMD Radeon HD 7950 and Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti that cost less than 300 euros on average.

We won't cover the graphics cards in-depth again, as you can read about them in their respective reviews and round-ups. Here's a list of the relevant articles:

In a nutshell, all of these graphics cards in the 200-300 euro segment can run all recent games in Full HD resolution (1920x1080). With a Radeon HD 7870 or Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 you do have to use normal or medium settings, but the 7950 and 660 Ti can often handle High or even Highest/Ultra settings. However, if you want a guarantee that you can play even the most graphically demanding games in Full HD and maximum settings you will need to spend more than 300 euros.

If you're interested in AMD cards, you can find some very nice deals with bundled AAA games thanks to the Never Settle Reloaded campaign. With the Radeon HD 7950 or 7990 card you get Bioshock: Infinite and Crysis 3 for free. The Radeon HD 7850 and 7870 come with Bioshock: Infinite and Tomb Raider. You do have do buy the cards from webshop that participate in the Never Settle Reloaded program.